The True Story of the Toothfairy
by Cat Martinez
Summary: As a child, did you ever wonder who left a coin under your pillow in exchange for a lost tooth? Did you know she was once a child just like you? Find out how because of the unselfishness of a little fairy girl, it becomes the key virtue that empowers her to become one of the best known fairies of all time. This is, "The True Story of the Tooth Fairy".


THE TRUE STORY OF

THE TOOTH FAIRY

BY

Catherine Martin

Since the beginning of time, fairies have been part of our world. The main purpose of a fairy is to care for nature, correct what is wrong, and make wishes come true. For every good thing in the world there is a fairy. Each fairy must find a purpose in life to become productive and instrumental. This is the story of one young fairy that found her purpose.

Gabriella was a happy, cheerful young fairy. She lived a typical fairies life. Her family were fairies to the meadows. Older family members took care of the lilies and tall hay grass. Younger members made sure the prairies would be prepared for grazing. Other members of the family looked after the brooks and streams to make sure the live stock would have good clean water. Gabriella's family was very proud of their land and stayed very busy. She tried to make herself useful to her parents or other siblings, but was usually brushed aside and told she was too young, too small and not experienced enough. Gabby would go and adventure out to 'the outer realm of the unknown to the fairies' and day dream of tales and stories, and hoped perhaps one day she too could be a very busy working fairy.

One evening after a long days work, Gabby and her family were sitting around the dinner table listening to Gabby's amazing stories, when she noticed a sharp pain biting down on a piece of a very hard pomegranate. She immediately closed her mouth in pain and when she looked at the fruit, a tooth was stuck in it. She screamed in horror and said with a lisp, "Mom, dad, what ith thith, what happened to me?"

Her mom and dad looked at the fruit then looked at their very scared little fairy and noticed her front tooth was missing and said with a smile, "Gabriella, there is nothing to be frightened about. This is only a baby tooth that fell out."

She knew nothing about losing any teeth and was terrified. "Will thith happen with all my teeth?" asked Gabby.

"Why, yes," her father said, "eventually you will lose all your baby teeth and grow new ones."

"When will thith happen?" said Gabby.

"In time my little one, in time," her mother said gently.

Because she talked so funny, her brothers and sisters were laughing at her. Gabby was devastated. She grabbed her tooth and ran straight to her room in tears. Not only was Gabby missing her front tooth, but she couldn't tell her tales and stories without someone making fun of her lisp. Her parents went into her room to try to comfort Gabriella.

"Why did thith have to happen to me," sniffled Gabby.

"Gabriella," her father said. "This didn't just happen to you, this happens to every young child, human or fairy."

"You mean thith happenth to every child? Gabby asked curiously. "They too feel all thith pain?"

"Yes," replied her mother. "I'm afraid so."

Gabby cried, "Oh thath tho horrible!" And the little fairy cried and cried and cried.

She eventually fell asleep on her bed in tears with the little tooth beside her on her bed. Gabby's parents opened the door and just looked upon their little fairy child so hurt by something she did not understand. At that moment, her father fairy had an idea that would probably make his fairy child feel better. He went to a secret place he built, where he would save the families keepsakes and treasures. When he came back, in his hand he had a beautiful shiny coin. The coin was so shiny that it almost hurt your eyes if you stared at it to long enough. He tipped toed in her room, and switched the coin with her tooth that had fallen on her pillow. And with that, he gently kissed her forehead and tipped toed out of the room.

The morning sun came shining brightly into Gabby's room and made her wake up, yawn and stretch. When suddenly, she was struck with a bright object beaming in her eyes. When she looked down, she noticed a bright coin sitting beside her. In amazement, Gabby picked up the coin and looked straight at her reflection. The coin was so beautiful and bright that she couldn't take her eyes off of it. She was mesmerized by the light shimmering on the coin. All of the sudden, she jumped out of bed, put the coin in a sachet, tied a string around it and hung it over her neck so she could take it everywhere she went. Then, she ran to her mother and father to show them the wonderful treasure she had found next to her on her bed. Gabby's parents were so relieved to see their little fairy child so happy and bouncy again.

She immediately finished her breakfast, got dressed and went down to the prairie field and showed all her fairy family the wonderful treasure she found.

"Wow Gabby," one of her cousins said. "How did this happen? I never found a shiny coin for my lost tooth."

Gabby happily said, "I juth woke up the next morning and there it wath." Gabby spent the day bouncing and prancing and visited 'the unknown realm' with the coin around her neck. She was still mesmerized by the beam of light reflected by the sun on her coin.

Gabby came home that night very happy. After dinner, the family sat around father as he read from the books of '_Stories and Tales by the Fairies, for the Fairies.'_ It was soon time to sleep, but Gabby lied in her bed staring at the stars. She wondered how many other children went through the same thing she did. Gabby for some reason couldn't sleep. She kept on thinking about all the poor children that went through the same tragedy she did. She finally went to her window and looked out to the crescent moon illuminating into the night. Her curiosity took over her mind and thoughts. And as she had done before, she went wandering into 'the unknown realm to the fairies'. She wanted to see for herself if there were others like her.

She flew from house to house only to see the children fast asleep all nestled up with their blankets and their night time friends. She was ready to go home herself and finally have a good night's rest, when lo and behold, she heard a faint but steady cry coming from a house outside the Big Woods. When she peeked in the window, there was a human child in bed very upset. Gabby stood still for a moment only to realize she was holding something very tight in her hand. After a few minutes, the child was asleep and her tiny hand opened. It was a tooth, just like the one Gabby lost yesterday. She looked upon the poor sniffling child in the bed and remembered who terrible and hopeless she felt the night she lost her tooth, and how wonderful it felt in the morning to find a beautiful golden coin next to her. It was like if the tooth turned into this amazing treasure. She thought long and hard, then looked at her coin, even at night how the light from the moon shimmered and danced on it, and how admired she was by the other fairy children all because of this beautiful coin.

Gabby again looked inside the house and saw the hopeless child, still sniffling in her sleep. Gabby started to think how sad and empty she would wake up in the morning to find nothing but an old tooth sitting on her pillow. She finally shook her wings, that allowed her to go through the window, and gently took the tooth away from the child and replaced it with her beloved coin. She left the room quickly and very sad. As she was traveling home, her mind wondered if that was the right thing to do. She was going to miss her treasure but Gabby couldn't leave the little girl so unhappy. What was Gabby going to do now? Her amazing coin was gone. When she arrived home, she quickly went to bed. She was too tired and exhausted to cry. Gabby fell into a deep sleep.

Morning came rapidly. The sun shinned brightly into Gabby's room like it did every morning. Gabby woke up still not realizing what had happened last night. Then, in a blink of an eye, she realized, her coin was gone. But as she looked down to her sachet still hanging from her neck, she noticed there was another coin inside! Just as sparkly and beautiful as the original one! How odd? Did she just dream what had happened last night? No time to think. It was time to get up, eat breakfast and go down to the fields. She kept her adventure from the night before a secret. Her fairy family still very much admired her coin.

Night time came around. As Gabby lied on her bed, she doubted herself whether what occurred last night happened or not. So, she set out again to visit 'the realm of the unknown' to see if she could find more children with the same problem. She grabbed her sachet, and went out in the night to visit other homes. Everything was still, until she heard a _grunt! grunt! grunt_! in the middle of the silence. She looked in a window and this time it was a little boy. He wasn't crying or tearful, he was mad. Next to him on his night table sat a tooth. As Gabby listened to the little boy talking out loud, he wasn't bothered about losing his tooth, he was more concerned about the children in school making fun at him. He was even talking about running away from home and never returning. The little boy angrily grabbed the tooth and soon, fell asleep.

Gabby was back again in the same situation as she was the night before. She really wasn't even sure if she gave her shiny coin to a little girl last night or not. Now Gabby had another tough decision to make. Does she risk, again, giving away her precious possession or does she just ignore the little boy's pain and go home? Gabby's mind was telling her "fly away", but her heart was saying "help and stay." So she shook her wings, went into the little boy's room and replaced her shiny coin with the tooth. She looked at her beautiful coin one last time, then, she slowly turned around and flew away. Why did she keep on doing this she wondered? She kept on putting herself in this situation again and again. But she just couldn't help it.

Gabby arrived home and rapidly fell asleep. Morning came suddenly. She woke up, stretched and looked inside her sachet, but no more coins. Oh no! Was that actually the last coin she would ever see? Because Gabby didn't want to worry her parents, she had breakfast with a smile on her face.

"Where is your coin Gabriella?" her mother asked.

"Oh, I dethided to leave it in my room," she said. But she knew that wasn't the truth. And worse of all, she's not going to be able to hide it very long, especially from the young fairies down the fields. She knew that sooner than later, she was going to have to tell the truth. She took her time going down to the prairie fields. Finally she arrived and the weirdest thing happened. None of her fairy family noticed that her coin was missing. And peculiarly enough, everyone was kind to her. The day continued like this and then it was time to go home.

After supper, she excused herself and went straight to bed. She needed a good night's rest. But before she went to sleep her eyes just roamed to the little sachet sitting next to her night table. AND LOOK! There wasn't 1 coin, there were at least 20 coins! All beautiful and shiny, just like the original coin! Gabby was so happy! But all she needed was one coin. How can she explain 20 coins to everyone? She thought about it for a while.

"I know what I'll do with the other 19 coins," Gabby thought. "I'll travel again to 'the realm of the unknown' and see if there are other children who lost their tooth and this way I could make many more children happy!"

So she packed up her coins, grabbed her sachet and went on her way. She left them one by one: 5, 7, 12, 15, 19 all gone. There were plenty of unhappy children that lost their tooth that night. But thanks to Gabby, they would open their eyes the next morning and find a beautiful shiny coin on their pillows instead of an old tooth. This made Gabby very happy. Not even receiving her original coin made her feel so happy inside.

The night was over for her. She was ready to return home with her 1 coin. But as she traveled home she heard that all but too familiar sound – a faint cry in the night. She tried very hard to ignore the cry, but she could not. It was kind of strange, the faster and further away she went, the louder the cry. She couldn't help herself but to go back. But this time, she was almost miraculously guided straight to the house.

There in the window, she saw a girl, not in bed, but on the side of her bed on the floor kneeling with both hands clutched together. And she heard the girl cry, "Pleath, oh pleath. Let me wake up altho with a shiny new coin for the loth of my tooth. Juth like the one my friend found under her pillow. She'th tho proud and happy with her coin. Pleath, oh pleath." And with that, the girl put the tooth under her pillow and went to sleep. Gabby noticed that the friend the girl was talking about was the house next door that she had given her original coin to a few nights ago. Can it be that children from around the land are becoming familiar with the notion:

_If a tooth you should loose in the middle of the night, a precious treasure you will find in the morning light._

Gabriella suddenly realized at that moment … she had acquired a gift, and this gift would make many children in pain very happy. And with that thought, all of a sudden, her sachet became ever so heavy! Almost unbearable! She didn't have 1 or 20 coins, she had a least 100 coins! Now she had all of these wonderful, beautiful shiny coins to give out to all the children she could find that were missing their tooth!

Gabriella picked up one of the shiny coins and looked at her reflection. She had never in her life seemed so happy and content. When she smiled, LOOK! She grew back a beautiful, white, shiny new tooth! Gabriella looked and felt wonderful, like she never did before!

So, the little fairy, night after night went out into 'the realm of the unknown' and made many children very happy. This little fairy truly found her purpose. (2nd to last page as a child.)

And as fairy tales go, one story ends and another begins, and this is the true story of...The Tooth Fairy. (Last pages a grown up fairy with flowing long brown hair, a huge golden bag filled with shiny coins, and of course ... a big beautiful smile.)

The End

_No matter how small or helpless you may feel, there is a gift waiting for you to reveal. You must seek it high and low, and then it will appear for you to glow._

8


End file.
